Tanto Edge… Practical, or Just Tacti-cool?

Cold Steel GI Tanto Knife

Yes, I am a sucker for tanto blades and I’m sure many others are as well.  That sexy triangular shaped blade can make a knife look quite awesome and deadly. However, there are some benefits to having a tanto shaped blade over say, a spear-point or drop-point edged knife. Unfortunately, due to that triangular shape, tanto blades have some disadvantages as well. While there are more than six advantages and disadvantages, I am going to hit the big three points for each.

Tanto Blade Advantages

1. Tip Strength – This one should be pretty obvious, but due to the triangular shape leading to the tip, the tip has much more reinforcement behind it than a drop-point or spear-point. Unless you plan on regularly stabbing through car doors or using your knife as a shovel, this really shouldn’t play a huge factor.

2. Japanese Design – Alright, I have to give a shout out to the Japanese when it comes to knives. Japan manufactures some of the coolest looking knives that I have ever seen. Don’t believe me? Check out this knife and be amazed.

3. In The Field Serviceability – Since Tanto blades tend to have two flat edges without much curve, it is easier to sharpen a ‘workable’ edge if you are in the field and don’t have sharpening equipment with you. However, this definitely doesn’t mean that sharpening a tanto edged knife is easy as you will see in the disadvantages below.

Tanto Blade Disadvantages

1. Sharpening is a pain – Since you have two separate bevels, instead of just sharpening one continuous edge, it feels like you are sharpening two knives since you have to switch between which bevel you are sharpening from time to time.

2. Slicing Tasks Can Be More Difficult – Due to the fact that a tanto has two flat edges and almost no “belly” if you are slicing through a rough material then you probably aren’t going to have as easy of a time as you would with a drop-point or spear-point.

3. Tanto Blades are Impractical – This goes back to point number one on the tanto blade advantages. If you aren’t planning on stabbing anything or anyone, a different style of blade with better slicing capabilities is much more practical for every day uses. While stabbing into your daily orange at lunch may be fun, slicing it with a drop point knife at the same sharpness would be much easier.

Bottomline

Tanto blades are awesome, but they aren’t very practical for every day uses. However, if you just like showing your knife off to friends while you do little daily tasks like opening letters, cutting meat, or slicing fruit, then a tanto blade will easily manage to complete these tasks.

Below Are Some 3 Tanto Style Knives That I Personally Dig

^Kabar Black Tanto Knife^

^Kershaw Brawler Speedsafe Folding Knife^

^Cold Steel Chaos (So Awesome)^

Why Would Anyone Want To Buy A Sheepsfoot or Wharncliffe Style Knife?

Short answer: They have lots of practical uses. However, below I will describe the top 3 advantages and top 3 disadvantages of owning a Sheepsfoot/Wharncliffe blade.

Advantages

1. It’s hard to stab yourself – Anyone who uses a knife daily has most likely accidentally either stabbed or cut themselves. Well, since there isn’t a menacing tip on the end of a sheepsfoot or wharncliffe knife, badly stabbing yourself is pretty difficult to accomplish.

2. They are great for carving tasks – Have you ever been bored and had a knife on you with a stick nearby? Chances are, at one point you decided to carve that stick into a spear or other wooden creation. Well, many wharncliffe and sheepsfoot blades have a large “belly” portion that doesn’t curve upward to a pointy tip, allowing for a knife with excellent carving capabilities.

3. Works nicely for rescue situations – Since there usually isn’t much of a tip, if any at all, sheepsfoot/wharncliffe blades are perfect for rescue/emergency situations. For example, if an EMT needed to cut an article of clothing off of someone in order to save their life, a sheepsfoot blade could cut through the clothing without much risk of accidentally stabbing the person.

Disadvantages

1. Most sheepsfoot/wharncliffe style knives don’t have much of a tip. If you regularly need to pierce and cut different materials, these styles of knives probably aren’t going to be the best options. However, there are exceptions to every rule, take this knife or perhaps this one for example. Those knives are modified wharncliffe-style blades with very devastating-looking tips.

2. Not the greatest at cutting food – Since most blades curve up to a tip, you can have your knife at a slight angle and rock the knife from tip to handle as you are cutting food. This is difficult with a sheepsfoot or wharncliffe because you have to have the blade relatively flat against a material in order to slice it.

3. Many Models Seem More Tacti-cool, rather than practical. For example, this knife. If tacti-cool/mall ninja status is what you are going for, well, you’re welcome. If not, then stick to a more classical wharncliffe or sheepsfoot blade and steer clear of the modified ones.

Bottomline

Both sheepsfoot and wharncliffe blades usually don’t have much of a tip and can be very useful for carving, slicing, and rescue activities. They are very practical for most everyday uses.

Sheepsfoot and Wharncliffe Knives That I Dig

^CRKT Minimalist (I Personally Carry This Every Single Day)^

^Benchmade Triage Sheepsfoot Knife^

^Kershaw Needs Work Wharncliffe^

I ♥ Knives takes your privacy seriously. This privacy policy describes what personal information we collect and how we use it.

Routine Information Collection

All web servers track basic information about their visitors. This information includes, but is not limited to, IP addresses, browser details, timestamps and referring pages. None of this information can personally identify specific visitors to this site. The information is tracked for routine administration and maintenance purposes.

Cookies and Web Beacons

Where necessary, I ♥ Knives uses cookies to store information about a visitor’s preferences and history in order to better serve the visitor and/or present the visitor with customized content.

Advertising partners and other third parties may also use cookies, scripts and/or web beacons to track visitors to our site in order to display advertisements and other useful information. Such tracking is done directly by the third parties through their own servers and is subject to their own privacy policies.

Controlling Your Privacy

Note that you can change your browser settings to disable cookies if you have privacy concerns. Disabling cookies for all sites is not recommended as it may interfere with your use of some sites. The best option is to disable or enable cookies on a per-site basis. Consult your browser documentation for instructions on how to block cookies and other tracking mechanisms.

Special Note About Google Advertising

Any advertisements served by Google, Inc., and affiliated companies may be controlled using cookies. These cookies allow Google to display ads based on your visits to this site and other sites that use Google advertising services. Learn how to opt out of Google’s cookie usage. As mentioned above, any tracking done by Google through cookies and other mechanisms is subject to Google’s own privacy policies.

Contact Information

Concerns or questions about this privacy policy can be directed to yastel78@gmail.com for further clarification.